Monday, October 13, 2008

Yikes

Apparently, biscuit-makers in Thailand and Sri Lanka have discovered the "magic" of putting melamine in food products. It is bizaare to me that one would use a chemical with a fairly complex (and toxic) synthesis in place of readily available and cheap foodstuffs, especially for biscuits--which tend to be made with lower protein flours to prevent being too chewy.

Ironically, adding melamine (which on initial analysis looks like protein) shows the product to be inferior.

So why do they do it? Well, look what melamine is made from; animal waste. I have to wonder if a big part of the problem is (government sponsored?) melamine factories near stockyards without sufficient legitimate demand for their product. Getting a price somewhat less than that for rice might be their best (short term of course) business decision.

Your best business decision, of course, just might be to avoid processed foods from Asia in general. If biscuit makers can't clue in to the fact that killing their customers is bad business, maybe they'll clue in to bankruptcy.

Dunno on the kidneys, but I'd guess that if you substituted melamine for rice protein in your noodles, you'd end up with noodles that would fall apart in the pot. It's not for no reason that they don't make noodles out of soft wheat!

I think. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for people to find problems in the domestic food supply. Somebody competing with Bangkok and Shanghai is going to get desperate one of these days.